(urth) Like a good Neighbor

[Gerry Quinn]

From: David Stockhoff 
On 11/22/2011 8:10 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> > As for Babbie, he actually sees him when he is alive. Horn shuts his 
> > eyes. Unless you think Horn died exactly then, Babbie got it wrong.

> NO. Horn was a spiritless corpse. Babbie was right.
A spiritless corpse that can open and close its eyes and remember stuff that happened around it, and next day can sit up and “come back to itself”.   I wouldn’t want Babbie for a doctor, he could have me buried if I overslept.  
Also, if Babbie really is so perspicacious about the presence of absence of spirits, when he defends Horn the next day doesn’t that show it was Horn in Horn’s body, not a Neighbour?  

> > But like you say, neither is human even if Seawrack may have been 
> > once. Would it be surprising if Horn saw a Neighbour from twenty feet 
> > and thought he was dead, then later found out he wasn’t?

> I see. So again, humans and Neighbors are exactly the same and you can 
> switch their positions to get really useful answers.

I think a symmetry applies.  Let me phrase it in more abstract terms: would aliens from different planets typically be expected to be able to identify each other’s state of health with total accuracy from twenty feet?
- Gerry Quinn
 
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